A lateral electric field type liquid crystal displays includes a pair of electrodes that is formed on the same substrate, and a liquid crystal material that responds to an electric field which is generated between the electrodes, almost in parallel to a surface of the substrate. This display has very wide viewing angles and is widely being used not only in television sets and monitors but also in displays for mobile devices.
In this kind of a lateral electric field type liquid crystal display, a liquid crystal material is oriented in parallel to a substrate surface and in the same direction. This orientation state is generally called uniaxial orientation. In the lateral electric field type liquid crystal display, in a state where the liquid crystal material is uniaxially oriented, when an electric field almost parallel to the substrate surface is applied, the orientation of the liquid crystal material is changed. As a result, display is performed. In general, a state where the liquid crystal material has responded to an electric field is referred to as white display, and a state where the liquid crystal material has not responded to an electric field is referred to as black display.
In the lateral electric field type liquid crystal display, especially, during white display, if a pressure is applied to the display surface, an orientation abnormality of the liquid crystal material occurs around the pressed position, and even after the pressure is removed, the orientation abnormality remains as a visible display defect for a long time. This display defect is called as a pressure mark. With respect to this pressure mark, there have been proposed configurations for changing the shapes of pixel electrodes, thereby suppressing occurrence of pressure marks (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2010-169994 and 2010-256547).
However, since the shapes of pixel electrodes for suppressing occurrence of pressure marks have protrusions or the like, each of which is formed at a portion between a pair of electrodes for generating an electric field almost in parallel to a substrate surface and changes the response direction of a liquid crystal material, an aperture ratio decreases and thus it is difficult to obtain sufficiently bright display.